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July 21, 1998
SUBJECT: Notice of July 29, 1998, Meeting. Topic Area Meeting Covering Study Parts A & B
Dear Interested Party:
On July 29, we will convene a meeting to solicit your input on the first parts of the study of the state’s electric industry that we are conducting under the provisions of ESSB 6560. This meeting will be designed to elicit your views on sections (a) and (b) of the study, which deal with variations in retail rates, trends affecting electric service costs, strategies to minimize electric service costs, and customer load demographics. Click here for instructions on how to get to the meeting.
Agenda for July 29, 1998, Topic Area Meeting: 6560 Study Sections A & B.
9:30 - Introductions, Review Agenda 9:45 - Clarifying Questions on Data Survey Section I (only) 10:15 - Review General Approach to Sections A & B 11:00 - Discuss Factors and Strategies (see below) 12:00 - Lunch (on your own) 1:00 - Discuss Factors and Strategies (cont.) 4:00 - Adjourn
Also attached are descriptions that we previously distributed on how we intend to approach these sections of the study. To help you prepare, we describe below a bit more about our approach and how you can participate.
We are collecting rate information from the utilities and will simply report various averages by categories, such as load class and utility type, and compare these averages to both Western and national figures.
Here, we plan to:
The factors we intend to examine include the presence of low-cost federal generation resources, other low-cost generation resources, innovation and end-use efficiency, wholesale market activity, long-term system investment, the mix of public and private utilities, and the system’s environmental performance. These seem to be the factors that most directly determine our system’s costs. Therefore, strategies will be examined in terms of their effects on these factors.
To examine the strategies we will define each generally to capture its fundamental characteristics. We will not try to define each strategy in complete detail or attempt to propose detailed solutions to the range of implementation questions each might imply. Our objective will be to gain a qualitative sense of how each potential strategy would likely affect those factors that have the most impact on the state’s electricity costs.
The strategies we propose to examine will include, but not be limited to, a range of alternative retail market structures (status quo, a core/non-core approach, portfolio choices, and full retail access). Other strategies we will likely want to consider include facilitating wholesale market competition, least-cost planning for monopoly retail services, preserving preferential access to federal generation, preserving access to non-federal, low-cost generation for Washington customers, and internalizing environmental costs.
If you have strategies you wish to recommend or argue for, please come prepared to address how they affect one or more of the important factors. We also welcome your input on our proposed list of factors and strategies.
Section (b) Customer Load Demographics
In this section we plan to simply provide analysis of the data we have requested concerning load and energy usage levels. This analysis should provide information about the number of customers that would be affected by any load-based criteria concerning open access or aggregation.
We are looking forward to a constructive discussion of the issues affecting parts (a) and (b) of the 6560 study and particularly look forward to your suggestions and comments.
See you on Wednesday the 29th of July.
[If you are not able to attend the meeting, you can provide suggestions and comments on these sections of the study through our general e-mail address – wepg@ep.cted.wa.gov – or by mail]
Sincerely,
| Dick Byers Energy Policy Specialist Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission |
K.C. Golden Assistant Director, Energy Division Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development |
Study 6560 web site: http://www.cted.wa.gov/energy/archive//6560 (includes a list of agency contacts, phone numbers and e-mail addresses).
General e-mail: wepg@ep.cted.wa.gov
| Fax: | Karen Dunn, CTED (360) 956-2180 |
| Chris Vernon, WUTC (360) 586-1150 |
CTED Energy Policy Home Page | Study 6560 Home | WUTC Home Page
| This page was last modified October 24, 2001. |
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| CTED Energy Policy Group PO Box 43173 Olympia, Washington 98504-3173 (360) 956-2096 (phone) (360) 956-2180 (fax) |
Washington
Utilities and Transportation Commission PO Box 47250 Olympia, Washington 98504-7250 (360) 753-6420 (phone) (360) 586-1150 (fax) |
Send comments to wepg@ep.cted.wa.gov |